Application of Trajectory Data for Investigating Vehicle Behavior in Mixed Traffic Environment

Author(s):  
Narayana Raju ◽  
Pallav Kumar ◽  
Aayush Jain ◽  
Shriniwas S. Arkatkar ◽  
Gaurang Joshi

The research work reported here investigates driving behavior under mixed traffic conditions on high-speed, multilane highways. With the involvement of multiple vehicle classes, high-resolution trajectory data is necessary for exploring vehicle-following, lateral movement, and seeping behavior under varying traffic flow states. An access-controlled, mid-block road section was selected for video data collection under varying traffic flow conditions. Using a semi-automated image processing tool, vehicular trajectory data was developed for three different traffic states. Micro-level behavior such as lateral placement of vehicles as a function of speed, instant responses, vehicle-following behavior, and hysteresis phenomenon were evaluated under different traffic flow states. It was found that lane-wise behavior degraded with increase in traffic volume and vehicles showed a propensity to move towards the median at low flow and towards the curb-side at moderate and heavy flows. Further, vehicle-following behavior was also investigated and it was found that with increase in flow level, vehicles are more inclined to mimic the leader vehicle’s behavior. In addition to following time, perceiving time of subject vehicle for different leading vehicles was also evaluated for different vehicle classes. From the analysis, it was inferred that smaller vehicles are switching their leader vehicles more often to escape from delay, resulting in less following and perceiving time and aggressive gap acceptance. The present research work reveals the need for high-quality, micro-level data for calibrating driving behavior models under mixed traffic conditions.

Author(s):  
Ritvik Chauhan ◽  
Ashish Dhamaniya ◽  
Shriniwas Arkatkar

A higher degree of heterogeneity in vehicle class and drivers, coupled with non-lane-based driving habits, creates several challenges in traffic flow analysis. This study investigates vehicles’ microscopic driving behavior at signalized intersections operating under weak lane discipline with mixed traffic (disordered) conditions. For this purpose, a comprehensive vehicular trajectory data set is developed from field-recorded video footage using a semi-automated tool for data extraction. Microscopic parameters such as relative velocity, spacing between vehicles, following time, lane preference, longitudinal and lateral speed profile, hysteresis evidence, and lateral movement of different vehicle classes during different traffic phases are presented in the study. The data is then segregated into three flow conditions: stopped flow, saturated flow, and unaffected flow. It is found that smaller vehicles prefer near-side lanes over far-side lanes. Motorized three-wheeler (3W) and motorized two-wheeler (2W) vehicle classes exhibit the greatest lateral velocity, lateral movement, and aggressiveness. This results in several interactions between vehicles as a function of different leader–follower vehicle pairs. Signalized intersections with more heterogeneity in traffic composition, especially higher composition of 2W and 3W vehicle classes, exhibit higher levels of aggressive driving behavior that might lower safety standards. As a practical application, ranges of various driving behavior parameter values for different leader–follower combinations and traffic conditions are quantified in the study. The observations and results are expected to help better understand prevailing driving behavior in disordered traffic and contribute toward robust calibration of microscopic traffic flow models for better replicating disordered traffic conditions at signalized intersections.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 1169-1177
Author(s):  
Sowjanya, Et. al.

In mixed traffic situations, there is weak or no lane behavior of the driver much more complicated where vehicle and driver behavior show a huge difference between them. Road traffic driving behavior on urban midblock sections is one of the most complex phenomena to be examined particularly in heterogeneous traffic conditions. This is often attributed to the capacity of the road section and the traffic flow features at the macroscopic and microscopic level of a road section. Very few researchers have attempted to investigate these features in heterogeneous environments because of the lack of adequate information gathering methods and the amount of complexity involved. In this background, an access controlled mid block road section was selected for video data collection. The main objectives of this study include developing vehicular trajectory data and analyzing the lane changing and vehicle following behavior of driver on the mid block section considering the relative velocities and relative spacing between various types of vehicles under heterogeneous traffic conditions.  The videos were collected from urban roadway in the Kurnool district of Andhra Pradesh. The length of the stretch is 120m and the width is 7.0 m. The data was extracted to know the variations in terms of longitudinal and lateral speeds, velocities, vehicle following and lane changing behavior of the drivers. The data extracted was smoothened by moving average method to minimize the human errors. Lateral amplitude of the vehicles of various types was analyzed. The study revealed that vehicles in the mixed stream, in general and in particular, Bikes and Autos particularly move substantially in the lateral direction.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wei Hao ◽  
Zhaolei Zhang ◽  
Zhibo Gao ◽  
Kefu Yi ◽  
Li Liu ◽  
...  

As the accident-prone sections and bottlenecks, highway weaving sections will become more complicated when it comes to the mixed-traffic environments with connected and automated vehicles (CAVs) and human-driven vehicles (HVs). In order to make CAVs accurately identify the driving behavior of manual-human vehicles to avoid traffic accidents caused by lane changing, it is necessary to analyze the characteristics of the mandatory lane-changing (MCL) process in the weaving area. An analytical MCL method based on the driver’s psychological characteristics is proposed in this study. Firstly, the driver’s MLC pressure concept was proposed by leading in the distance of the off-ramp. Then, the lane-changing intention was quantified by considering the driver’s MLC pressure and tendentiousness. Finally, based on the lane-changing intention and the headway distribution of the target lane, an MLC positions probability density model was proposed to describe the distribution characteristics of the lane-changing position. Through the NGSIM data verification, the lane-changing analysis models can objectively describe the vehicle lane-changing characteristics in the actual scenarios. Compared with the traditional lane-changing model, the proposed models are more interpretable and in line with the driving intention. The results show significant improvements in the lane-changing safe recognition of CAVs in heterogeneous traffic flow (both CAVs and HVs) in the future.


Author(s):  
Madhuri Kashyap N. R. ◽  
Bhargava Rama Chilukuri ◽  
Karthik K. Srinivasan ◽  
Gowri Asaithambi

In mixed traffic streams without lane discipline, driving behaviors are complex and difficult to model. However, limited attempts have been made to study the characteristics of these maneuvers using trajectory data. This paper proposes a novel use of vehicle trajectory data to identify car–car and auto–car pairs in the following regime and the regime duration, classify pairs as strict and staggered following, and investigate the factors influencing the following vehicle’s speed under different regimes in mixed traffic. Oblique trajectories and relative speed hysteresis plots are used to identify vehicle pairs in the steady-state following regime. Two new variables, oblique spacing (R) and the angle between the leader and the follower (θ), are proposed. Multiple linear regression models for the follower speed in strict and staggered following regimes are developed. The results show that cars exhibit following behavior more often than other vehicles. Also, while car–car pairs display both left and right staggered following, auto–car pairs predominantly demonstrate left staggered following. Regression analysis shows that the relationship between R and the speed of the following vehicle differs significantly when θ is close to 90° than when it deviates from 90°. The speed of followers is affected by leader and relative speeds. However, the relative speed has a smaller influence in both right and left staggered cases than strict follower cases. Finally, this study provides empirical evidence of qualitative and quantitative differences among following behaviors that can help in developing better microscopic traffic flow models for mixed traffic conditions.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bhargav Naidu Matcha ◽  
Satesh Narayana Namasivayam ◽  
Mohammad Hosseini Fouladi ◽  
K. C. Ng ◽  
Sivakumar Sivanesan ◽  
...  

The area of traffic flow modelling and analysis that bridges civil engineering, computer science, and mathematics has gained significant momentum in the urban areas due to increasing vehicular population causing traffic congestion and accidents. Notably, the existence of mixed traffic conditions has been proven to be a significant contributor to road accidents and congestion. The interaction of vehicles takes place in both lateral and longitudinal directions, giving rise to a two-dimensional (2D) traffic behaviour. This behaviour contradicts with the traditional car-following (CF) or one-dimensional (1D) lane-based traffic flow. Existing one-dimensional CF models did the inclusion of lane changing and overtaking behaviour of the mixed traffic stream with specific alterations. However, these parameters cannot describe the continuous lateral manoeuvre of mixed traffic flow. This review focuses on all the significant contributions made by 2D models in evaluating the lateral and longitudinal vehicle behaviour simultaneously. The accommodation of vehicle heterogeneity into the car-following models (homogeneous traffic models) is discussed in detail, along with their shortcomings and research gaps. Also, the review of commercially existing microscopic traffic simulation frameworks built to evaluate real-world traffic scenario are presented. This review identified various vehicle parameters adopted by existing CF models and whether the current 2D traffic models developed from CF models effectively captured the vehicle behaviour in mixed traffic conditions. Findings of this study are outlined at the end.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (19) ◽  
pp. 11052
Author(s):  
Mohammed Al-Turki ◽  
Nedal T. Ratrout ◽  
Syed Masiur Rahman ◽  
Imran Reza

Vehicle automation and communication technologies are considered promising approaches to improve operational driving behavior. The expected gradual implementation of autonomous vehicles (AVs) shortly will cause unique impacts on the traffic flow characteristics. This paper focuses on reviewing the expected impacts under a mixed traffic environment of AVs and regular vehicles (RVs) considering different AV characteristics. The paper includes a policy implication discussion for possible actual future practice and research interests. The AV implementation has positive impacts on the traffic flow, such as improved traffic capacity and stability. However, the impact depends on the factors including penetration rate of the AVs, characteristics, and operational settings of the AVs, traffic volume level, and human driving behavior. The critical penetration rate, which has a high potential to improve traffic characteristics, was higher than 40%. AV’s intelligent control of operational driving is a function of its operational settings, mainly car-following modeling. Different adjustments of these settings may improve some traffic flow parameters and may deteriorate others. The position and distribution of AVs and the type of their leading or following vehicles may play a role in maximizing their impacts.


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